Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control technique of a printing apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
It is common for a recent printing apparatus to include a power save mode function to reduce power during standby. In the case where the printing apparatus is in the activated state and is not used for a fixed period of time, the mode automatically changes from the normal mode into the power save mode, and thereby, power during standby is reduced. In the power save mode, power during standby can be reduced, but it is not possible to immediately start printing processing, and therefore, the power save mode and user's convenience are in the relationship of trade-off. In other words, in the power save mode, it is necessary to return from the power save mode to the normal mode the next time a user uses the printing apparatus, and therefore, there is a demerit in that a user needs to wait for the time needed for the return. In particular, in the case where activation of a hard disk device is necessary for the return from the power save mode, time is taken by a storage unit (disc) having a physical structure to reach a stable predetermined rotation speed and time is taken by self-diagnostic processing, such as a write and read processing check. Because of this, the activation time of the hard disk device alone takes several seconds to a ten and some seconds.
As to this point, a proposal has been presented that a wasteful access time until the hard disk device can be accessed is excluded at the time of return from the power save mode (e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-124076). The method of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-124076 is as follows.
At the time of change into the power save mode, information (state information) necessary to return to the same state as the previous state at the time of return the next time is divided into two pieces of information and those two pieces of information are stored in two kinds of nonvolatile storage devices, respectively, which take different times to reach the state where the storage device can be read.
At the time of return from the power save mode, the divided state information that is saved is acquired in order from the storage device that reaches the state where the storage device can be read earlier and the information is set again to various resources, and thereby, the state before the power save mode is entered is returned.
With this method, by using a hard disk device as one of the two kinds of nonvolatile storage devices and a Flash memory that can activate quickly as the other, it is made possible to start the activation processing from the Flash memory without the need to wait until the hard disk device activates, which takes time for activation.
However, with the method of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-124076 described above, the state information necessary for return is divided into two pieces and one of them is saved in the hard disk device that slowly activates, and therefore, there is a possibility that the time taken for return will be affected eventually by the activation time of the hard disk device.
Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments (with reference to the attached drawings).